


After the Last Fight

by Bernard_Lapis_Walden



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, Happy Ending, Identity Reveal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-18
Updated: 2016-08-18
Packaged: 2018-08-09 11:58:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,196
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7801045
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bernard_Lapis_Walden/pseuds/Bernard_Lapis_Walden
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After Ladybug and Cat Noir defeat Hawk Moth, Adrien becomes depressed and Marinette reveals her secret identity to shut Chloé up once and for all. See how it all works out in the end!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chloé the Terrible

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first work! Let me know what you guys think of it.

                It had been a month after Ladybug and Cat Noir defeated Hawk Moth. The fight lasted over three days with all of Paris under lockdown as Ladybug and Cat Noir battled countless Akumas, darkened monsters, and finally the man himself, Hawk Moth. Finally knocking him down and seizing his Miraculous, both Ladybug and Cat Noir were stunned to find that Hawk Moth was Gabriel Agreste. Ladybug, knowing Adrien would be destroyed to find out his father had been the evil that terrorized Paris, gave him an option.      
    “Gabriel Agreste. You either face your punishment by the law and everybody will know you are Hawk Moth or flee this country and NEVER return.”  
                Knowing that he had already lost everything worth fighting for, Gabriel chose to live out his life alone, forever away from Paris. Making the arrangements, he asked his assistant Nathalie to watch over Adrien and tell him that he will be away on a business trip for over a year. Once notified about his father’s trip, Adrien started his spiral into depression. Knowing his father would never actually return from this ‘business trip’, Adrien’s thought began to stick to the fact that he had not lost his entire family. First his mother for unknown reasons and now his father to evil, Adrien felt everything in his heart shatter when he realized what else he had lost. Now without the need for superheroes to fight against evil, Adrien knew Ladybug would never show up ever again. With his last strand of hope in his heart, Cat ran across roof tops on his nightly patrols waiting to see his spotted partner in heroism. But after a week of heart breaking disappointment, he stopped patrolling and his heart broke into two with a crack that felt like an empty dark craves that would never heal.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

                After a full week had passed in peace, Marinette would wake up to her alarm and never was once late again to school. She began to return to her normal life. A simple life of waking up to meet her best friend at school, to learn her subjects without an interrupting Akuma, and to daydream about Adrien was something that Marinette wanted so badly. But after the last fight, she felt a little empty. She hadn’t seen Cat Noir since the last fight and began to worry. After resuming nightly patrols a week after the last fight, she was always met with disappointment when her feline partner wasn’t there with her.  
                Not only was that pulling down her feelings, but Adrien had seemed beyond depressed ever since the final fight had happened and she could not figure out why. She had overheard Adrien telling Nino that his father would be gone for over a year because of a business trip, but she knew something else was very wrong. Adrien would still act like good student and take notes in class, but he would return home without a blink of an eye. He would turn down every opportunity to get away from his modeling and secluded life; something that a happy Adrien would do on a daily bases. Even Nino’s endlessly invitations to come out to hang with him or even Chloé’s attempts to bring Adrien shopping weren’t enough to persuade him into a social group. Not knowing why the love of her life was pushing his friends away has worried Marinette to no end. But little did she know that today was the day she would get all of her questions answered.  
                It had been a typical day. Marinette sitting in the classroom with Alya on the Ladyblog gushing over how Ladybug had vanquished Hawk Moth and Nino trying to keep up a one sided conversation with Adrien by talking about various things in the row in front. The only disruption of peace was Chloé’s voice yelling at Nathanaël. The poor boy only had passed her desk when she snatched a beautifully drawn Cat Noir from his notebook.  
    “Why on EARTH would you even bother drawing that pathetic excuse of a superhero? If it’s anyone that you should be drawing, it should be Ladybug!” Chloé snarled ripping up Nathanaël’s drawing.  
    “NO!” Nathanaël cried bending down to pick up the tiny shreds of paper that once used to be his drawing.  
    “HOW DARE YOU CHLOE!” Marinette exclaimed. She bent down and helped Nathanaël pick up the remaining pieces and carried them up to his desk. “Putting someone down with words is already bad enough but to ruin somebody’s possessions like that crosses too many lines! You’re just like Hawk Moth; nothing but evil.”  
    “And like you should be the one to talk.” Chloé said without a hint of backing off. “Trying to act all high and mighty like Ladybug. Well news flash: you’re nothing like Ladybug. You’re just a clumsy baker’s daughter who can’t even walk without tripping over air. And you know what else you stupid little-”  
    “MISS BOURGEOIS!” Ms. Bustier yelled. Nobody had noticed her entering the classroom. “I highly recommend you remain silent and….”  
    “No Ms. Bustier let her finish her rant.” Marinette interrupted somehow finding herself standing in front of Chloé’s desk. “ _This is the last straw. It’s time that someone ended her reign of terror and that someone is the one of the two who took down Hawk Moth. Good thing the dangers of a secret identity aren’t as high now that he’s gon_ e” She thought to herself. “But let her tell it to both sides of me. Tikki, Spots on!”  
                The magic of the transformation washed over Marinette and she stood in front of her entire class as Ladybug. She could feel every signal air molecule being sucked into lungs as everybody gasped.  
    “Tell it to my face.” Marinette growled at Chloé.  
                After a few seconds of intense silence, Chloé let out a deafening scream. Unfortunately the walls of the classroom were thick enough to keep in most of the scream inside the room and amplified the noise by one hundred fold.  
    “NO THIS IS A JOKE!” Chloé yelled hysterically, baffled by Marinette’s transformation. “This is a joke! You can’t be ladybug! The brave, smart, and absolutely perfect ladybug is nothing like this joke of a human being! Tell her Adrien!”  
                Everybody now stared at Adrien whose jaw had unhinged leaving the model’s mouth wide open. Eyes wide and a shock yet somber look to his expression, Adrien shifted slightly in his chair and his eyes began to twitch. Everybody waited to hear what the quiet model had to say about the situation.  What everybody didn’t expect was for Adrien to burst out laughing.  
                Marinette could feel everything inside of her heart being sucked into a black hole. She thought that Adrien had agreed with Chloé and thought that Marinette being Ladybug was the biggest joke in the world. But just before all of her hope disappeared, she noticed that Adrien wasn’t only laughing, but sobbing. In a mixture of laughs and sorrowful hiccups, tears flooded his face which washed away the concealer that hid the extremely heavy and dark bags under his eyes.  
    “Ad-Adrien? Are y-you ok?” Marinette asked knowing something was terribly wrong with him.  
                The next thing that registered in her head was his body tightly hugging hers. She didn’t notice how lighting fast Adrien’s motions were when he stood up and stepped over to her to bury his head in her shoulder and continue his sob laughing in her shoulder. Marinette didn’t know what to do except put her hands gently on his back returning the embrace. After a few seconds and a couple of deep breaths, Adrien spoke with a broken voice that soon turned into a strong and recognizable voice that only Ladybug would remember.  
   “I….I’m not l-laughing at you Marinette.” Adrien said in a whisper. “I’m laughing at the fact that I’ve spent so long wallowing at home thinking that I will never get to see you again. I thought that I’d never see the one who makes me happy and keep me going ever again. And yet, you’ve been sitting right behind me this entire time My Lady.”  
                As soon as the words left his mouth, Adrien felt her body stiffen. But all he could do was pull out from his hug a little bit and give his lady a tearful Cheshire Cat smile.  
    “What are you DOING Adrikins?! Get off of her! The only person that should be hanging onto her like that is her useless alley cat of a side kick!” Chloé said seething.  
    “You know Chloé…” Adrien said now looking deadly into Chloé’s eyes. “For once, I’m going to have to agree with you on that one. Plagg, Claws out!”  
                A shower of lighting green electricity showered over Adrien and Cat Noir stood tall for the class to take in his other half. With another collective gasp, and another moment of silence, Chloé fainted in her seat with her head landing on Sabrina’s lap.  
    “Well that went well didn’t it My Lady?” Cat’s ears were met with silence. “Marinette?”  
                Adrien turned and was met with eyes popping out of a mask and a jaw that he thought would detach and drop to the ground at any moment. ‘ _Well this may as well be the only time to tell her how I feel. I get the feeling she’s going to avoid me at all cost after today…_ ’Adrien thought to himself.  
    “H-hey…I never got the opportunity to tell you something. And now that I know your identity, I know without a doubt that what I’m about to say is true. I love you. Both sides of you Marinette.”  
                Before Marinette could say or do anything else, Nino poked his head between the two superheroes.  
    “Uummm guys? I know that you two are having a moment and you’ve just revealed the world’s biggest secret to the entire class and finally shut down ‘Chloé the Terrible’ and my man just confessed his unending love for you Marinette, buuuuuuuut I think you’ve completely destroyed my girlfriend.”  
                Turning to face Alya, the superhero duo was faced with the petrified blogger that had a face of every emotion ranging from anger, betrayal, and mortification to surprised, shocked, and a hint of a combination of understanding and forgiveness. On the list of trying to get Alya to respond, Nino tried poking her face, shoving her, and even kissing her on the cheek. Nothing worked.  
    “Uummm Ms. Bustier, may we take our friend to the nurse’s office please?” Marinette asked politely.  
                The only response that came from the teacher was a stiff nod. With that, Marinette dropped her transformation and went over to pick Alya up.  
    “I could use a hand Cat.” Marinette said without a hitch in her voice.  
                Dropping his transformation, Adrien moved to help Alya up.  
    “And y-you and I a-are going to have a SERIOUS t-talk about what just happened later.” Marinette said sternly with a bright red blush.  
                Adrien couldn’t help wonder why his Lady was so flustered. Was it from the reveal? Was it because she really did feel uncomfortable being around him? Was it because she was trying to figure out a way to reject him after he confessed his feelings towards her? He felt like he wouldn’t know any time soon.  
                Picking Alya up, Adrien and Marinette carried Alya across the school to the nurse’s office. When they got there, Marinette explained that she was under extreme shock but the proper treatment for this was to give her a thick pillow. The nurse, listening to Marinette, set a pillow on Alya’s lap and the girl suddenly snatched the pillow and buried her face into it.  
   “We might want to get out of here….” Marinette said covering her ears.  
                Marinette and Adrien ran out of the office just before a muffled, yet high octave, shriek echoed throughout the school. Returning to the classroom, everyone stared at the two teenagers. An awkward silence between everybody stretched out for minutes as everyone listened to Alya’s scream in the distance.  
    “Geez she’s been holding onto that note for over three minutes now!” Nino said breaking the silence.  
    “Sorry we did that Nino.” Adrien and Marinette said at the same time.  
    “We all should be feeling sorry for you two!” Alix said. “You just revealed yourself as the heroes of Paris in front of the one who runs a blog dedicated to you two! Best of luck not getting murdered by Alya by the way.”  
                An awkward silence passed by once again.  
    “You know you guys are taking this a lot better than I’ve expected. With the exception of Alya.” Adrien told the class.  
    “I am sure that the class is shocked in their own ways Adrien.” Max said now speaking up for the class. “And I am also sure that we all are coming to the realization of why you two are always late, missing class, suddenly running to the bathroom or disappearing when there is an Akuma attack. But, I believe that everyone in this classroom has something to say to you two and I will be the first.” Taking a pause to push his glasses up and wipe a small tear away, Max looked up at the two heroes. “Thank you for beating me at my own game.”  
                Once again, silence filled the air but was shortly ended when another voice piped up.  
    “Thank you for noticing me.” Juleka spoke.  
    “Thank you for helping me.” Ivan said next.  
    “Thank you for being there for me.” Nathanaël whispered just loud enough for the heroes to hear.  
                Soon the quiet of the room was replaced with the thank you’s from rest of the students. Once the last student said their thanks, Marinette’s voice took over.  
    “There isn’t really a need for you guys to thank us. We were chosen to protect and fight against Hawk Moth and we did the best we could do. We were just doing our jobs.”  
    “Doing your JOBS?!?!” a strained yet powerful voice boomed.  
                Alya kicked the, once ajar, door wide open and slammed it shut behind her. With the same facial expression as before, minus shock and betrayal, Alya began her verbal assault on the two heroes.  
    “Are you JOKING ME?!?! You two have been protecting not only us but the entirety of Paris from Hawk Moth and YOU SAY THAT YOU WERE ONLY DOING A JOB!?!?!” Alya yelled lividly.  
    “Alya please try not to yell at them too much.” Ms. Bustier asked with a worried look.  
    “Ms. Bustier, with all due respect, someone’s seriously gotta tell this one to stop putting herself down like the way she’s doing to herself right now.” Alya said turning back to Marinette. Her voice filled with unrelenting force again. “YOU were NOT just doing a job that you were chosen to do. You did this because you cared about our safety. You cared about the safety of everybody in Paris! You sacrificed your sleep, your grades, your being, your LIFE, your **SELF** to protect everyone in this city and you’re so selfless that you just brush everything that you’ve done off like it’s nothing! You may think you’re ‘plain old Marinette’ when you compare yourself with Ladybug but you need to know that YOU chose to do this. YOU’RE the one who saved everybody from the Akumas. YOU’RE the one who’s behind the Ladybug mask. There is NO such thing as Ladybug WITHOUT Mar-in-ette. And there is no one, AND I REPEAT **_NO ONE,_** who is stronger, bravery, more selfless, more confident than you Marinette Dupain Cheng.”  
                Marinette stood there shocked at how accurate her best friend knew she would compare herself to Ladybug. And not waiting for Marinette’s response, Alya suddenly grabbed Adrien’s black shirt and bends him backwards over his desk and glares at him.  
    “And YOU, **Cat Boy** , will do your best to make my girl the happiest girl in the world. But if you so much as leave a scratch on her heart…” Alya’s voice suddenly emulated the deep growl of a panther. “I. Will. **_End_**. You.”  
                With only a confused “ _EEP”_ in response, Alya released Adrien and turns to the class and teacher. While straightening back up, Adrien failed to notice how red Marinette had become. Her face was several shades deeper than her super suit.  
    “ _What was that about?_ ” Adrien asked himself. “ _Alya knows that Cat has a crush on Ladybug but doesn’t she also know that Ladybug doesn’t like him back…_ ” Not wanting to continue to ponder the issue, Adrien put the thoughts in the back burner.  
    “As for the rest of you, even though Hawk Moth is gone, I need everyone to keep their mouths shut about the secret identities of our superhero duo.” Alya said glaring at the class and teacher.  
    “I don’t think we’ll have a problem keeping this as a secret. Both Marinette and Adrien have saved literally every student in this classroom from being an Akumatized victim and we owe them.” Kim said standing up. “My only worry is if Chloé and Sabrina will keep their mouths closed or not.”  
                While Kim gestured to the empty seats, Marinette let out a sigh of defeat. Knowing Chloé, Marinette could only imagine the news being flooded with their identities as they spoke to the class. The class bell rang and everybody began to file out of the room.  
    “I can talk to her.” Adrien said putting a hand on Marinette’s shoulder. “I’ll meet you, Alya, and Nino after I talk to Chloé. Where can I meet up with you guys?”  
    “At my place.” Marinette replied without looking at Adrien. Just as Adrien turned to head out of the classroom, he was halted by a hand grabbing his wrist. Immediately letting go of his wrist like it burned her, Marinette shyly and very quietly said in a high squeaky voice “I-I-I-I’m gl-glad that itwasyouAdrien” before sprinting out of the door of the classroom to be followed by Alya and Nino both shaking their heads.


	2. Marinette's Parents

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marinette finds out that her parents already know she's Ladybug

                As Marinette, Alya and Nino walked to the bakery, the only thing that Marinette could feel was a numb yet liberating feeling of finally letting the secret out.  
    “ _I can finally tell them everything! I don’t have to keep this a secret anymore! Maybe I should tell my parents too. They deserve to know...._ ” Marinette thought to herself.  
                Just as she had those thoughts, the three had already entered the bakery and were greeted by Marinette’s parents.  
    “Hello honey and welcome back Alya, Nino!” Sabine said behind the counter.  
    “Welcome home you three!” Tom’s voice came booming from behind the door to the bakery.  
    “Hi mom! Hi dad!” Marinette said as she thought of a way to bring up her identity gently. But all thought processes grinded to a halt when Tikki came flying out of her bag and snuggled against Sabine’s cheek.  
    “And hello to you too Tikki.” Sabine said with a warm smile.  
    “ ** _TIKKI!!!_** ” Marinette squeaked shouted as her hands covered her mouth and most of her face.  
    “Is the secret out?” Tom said as he came through the bakery door. “Hello Tikki! I have some fresh baked cookies in the back made just how you like them. Just let them cool and you and Marinette can bring them up.” Quickly taking a glance at his daughter, he laughed and said, “But then again, we should probably carry Marinette upstairs and Alya or Nino can take the cookies.”  
                Tom and Sabine stood chuckling as they watched Marinette’s face contort into numerous amounts of confused expressions. After a few seconds, her legs gave out and Marinette was on her knees staring at her parents and Tikki with wide bugged eyes and a mouth so wide that it could easily hold four large macaroons.  
    “YOU GUYS **_KNEW?!?!_** ” Marinette’s screams muffled by her hands.  
    “You didn’t think we wouldn’t recognize our own daughter in all of Alya’s blog reports?” Tom laughed again.  
    “Plus you weren’t all too quiet when you left for a few of your patrols.” Sabine added.  
                Flying towards Marinette and hovering in front of her face, Tikki confessed.  
    “Marinette it’s actually my fault that they know.” Tikki said sounding a little ashamed. “Remember that late night Akuma named Night Knight that exhausted both of us to the point where we both fell asleep when we made it back to your bed?” Marinette nodded. “Well I woke up at around five in the morning and I didn’t want to wake you up to get some food. So I went downstairs and searched around the bakery to look for any leftover cookies from the day before. I found a few chocolate cream filled cookies in the fridge and while I was eating, your mother opened the door and caught me.”  
    “I remember what happened next.” Tom said smiling softly. “Your mother didn’t even bat an eye when she held the plate up to me and showed me the little kwami. She just smiled and said to the little one ‘I think we need to have a talk.’”  
    “At first, seeing a little red creature with spots eating cookies in the fridge scared me for a moment.” Sabine picked up. “But I recognized the pattern and I knew that our young daughter had to be the hero of Paris. The conversation with Tikki only confirmed it.”  
    “But why didn’t you tell me Tikki!” Marinette said still a little on edge.  
    “Your parents didn’t want you to know that your secret was out. They already understood how much this meant for you and so they promised to keep this a secret until your secret was out. So now we’re here.”  
    “So if Marinette’s secret is out, does this mean you three know who Cat Noir is?” Tom asked.  
    “Oh you have no IDEA!” Alya suddenly perked up. “Not only do we know who the famous superhero duo are, but so does the entire class! They’re both in our class!!”  
    “Is Adrien Cat Noir?” Sabine asked bouncing on the spot. “Oh I hope he’s Cat Noir! So all of this can come to a wonderful and loving ending!”  
    “ _MAMAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!!!_ ” Marinette groaned loudly as her face began to flare up in embarrassment.  
    “Dang Marinette, your parents are sharper than Cat’s claws! They only needed one clue and they could already guess that Adrien is Cat Noir.”  
                With a cheer from both of her parents, Marinette was suddenly picked up and smothered in her parents’ arms.  
    “So where is the lucky boy? I need to add another layer of fear to go along with Alya’s!” Tom said laughing with Alya.  
    “That won’t be necessary Tom” Alya said. “I got the message through to him after the reveal happened. And he’s actually out to convince Chloé to keep our secret away from the media.”  
    “Well that sounds like a task and a half. I assume he’ll be coming over when he’s done. When he gets here, you four better tell us everything that happened.” Tom said. “But for now, we should probably get back to work.”  
                Gesturing to the doorway that lead up to the living area as the front door bell chimed with a group of five customers entering, the three followed Tom’s hand and headed upstairs to wait for Adrien.


	3. Fixing Adrien's Broken Heart

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> All unanswered questions that linger in Adrien's mind will be answered! And a happy ending is promised.

                After an hour of continuous bombardment of questions from Alya and a few little questions from Nino, Marinette started to regret her decision of revealing her identity. Just as another volley of questions about her Ladybug career were about to leave Alya’s mouth, the three heard Marinette’s mother call upstairs.  
    “Marinette! Your friend is here! I’ll just send him up.”  
                Everyone in the expected a blond head to appear from the trap door that lead into the room. What came through was a black blur that sped and tackled Tikki in midair.  
    “TIKKI!!!!! It’s been AGES!” Plagg shouted as he danced in circles in the air with the pink kwami.  
    “It’s so nice to see you again Plagg!” Tikki said hugging the black cat kwami back. “And now that Hawk Moth is gone, we don’t have to hide from each other anymore!”  
    “Plus nobody outside of the class will know who we are!” Adrien voiced as the five beings noticed a blond head appearing from the trap door. “It took a little bit to get Chloé to stop throwing shoes at me, but after she calmed down, I got through to her and she promised not to tell anyone.”  
    “Dude…” Nino spoke. “…how did you manage to get through her? She hates Cat Noir!”  
    “Well I was sorta in my suit when I first arrived. She freaked out and after a while, I de-transformed and she just stopped. I talked to her as me and I eventually got through. The old Chloé that I know from my childhood is still in there and she wants me to be safe from the media. And she’s slowly coming around to the idea of Marinette being Ladybug.” Adrien supplied. “As for Sabrina, she was also in the room and she agreed to not tell anyone after Chloé agreed. She also says thanks for helping her get her friendship back with C-Chloé.” Adrien stuttered when he turn to Marinette.  
                Adrien wasn’t sure what made his heart rate skyrocket faster; the cold deadeye stare that Marinette used or the realization that he was now talking to Ladybug in her civilian form. What he knew was that her sudden movement to the trap door and closing it with a gentle but unsubtle bang sent chills through his blood. With a force in her voice, she confronted her partner.  “I’m just going to get straight to the point.” Marinette said coldly. “Why didn’t you come looking for me after the fight with Hawk Moth?”  
    “I did!” Adrien exclaimed “I spent an entire week after the fight looking everywhere for you! I gave up after the seventh day…”  
    “But didn’t you get my message?” Marinette asked suspiciously. “I told you to lay low for a week so the news could calm down after I announced that we had taken Hawk Moth’s Miraculous.”  
    “The message might not have gone through Marinette.” Tikki suddenly zipping in front of her chosen. “While you were holding the butterfly Miraculous, I could feel left over dark energy that Hawk Moth used to create Akumas trying to take control of you. I used some of my powers to stop it so maybe that’s why Cat never got the message.”  
    “Well that explains that….” Marinette said quietly to herself. After a few moments of silence, Marinette walked up to Adrien and pulled him into a tight hug. “I’m so sorry. You shouldn’t have to go through this alone. I should have been there for you.”  
                Without warning, Adrien began to crying again.  
    “Hey man, is everything alright?” Nino asked with a voice full of concern.  
              Marinette knew what Adrien had gone through and wasn’t sure if he wanted to bring it up yet. So she did the only real thing she could do and hugged him tighter.  
    “It’s up to you to tell them. It’s not my place to say anything to them about it.” Marinette whispered into Adrien’s ear.  
                Looking up at both Nino and Alya, he found that both were worried and concerned for Adrien. In that moment, Adrien felt like the only ones who truly cared about him were the three friends in the room. And so he told them.  “Hawk Moth was my father.” Adrien choked through his tears. “That business trip I told you about this morning was actually Ladybug giving him the chance to flee and never come back.”  
                Adrien put his arms around Marinette as his head now fell onto her shoulder and the room was filled with the sound of soft sniffles and heavy breaths. Even after the thick moments of silence after Adrien managed to pull himself together, the only thing Nino could produce was, “dude…”. Now pulling out of their hug, Adrien started his search for answers to the questions that plagued his mind.  
    “Why did you give him that choice? Why didn’t you just let the authorities take him away?”  
    “I couldn’t do that to you Adrien.” Marinette said quietly. “I couldn’t just reveal to the world that Gabriel Agreste was Hawk Moth. It would have left you with nothing. Sending him away was the only way I could think of to keep you from figuring out that your father was Hawk Moth and prevent the authorities from messing with your life. And I know that you wanted to make your father happy but I couldn’t take that and your father away from you. I just couldn’t do that to you. I never wanted you to be crushed like this. So I tried to come up with a way to prevent you from ever finding out and save you from all of this……but you’ve known all along.”  
                Silence filled the room once more as Adrien slowly processed her reasoning. She wanted to protect him even before knowing his real identity. She knew how he was desperately trying to get his father to smile like he used to before his mother disappeared. She knew exactly how things would have played out if he were to find out and did her best to protect him. These were the very reasons why Adrien had fell in love with the girl underneath the Ladybug mask. Marinette was kind, protective, thoughtful, and so much more. But he knew she would never love him back……or would she?  
    “I……..I never knew My Lady cared s-so much about m-me.” Adrien shyly said attempting to flirt with Cat’s confidence. Marinette, knowing what he was trying to do, took the next step not only for Adrien, but for herself as well.  
    “Adrien…I need to talk to you about something else.” Marinette’s voice had the consistency of gelatin, solid yet wobbly. “Adrien Agreste is Cat Noir.” She stated. Adrien only stared at her and nodded with confusion.  
    “ _Where is she going with this…_ ” Adrien thought to himself.  
    “And Cat Noir is in love with Ladybug. Right?” Marinette feared that he would answer right away revealing that he had fallen for only one side of her. She was not disappointed when she was greeted with silence.  
                Every gear in Adrien’s head came to a painful grinding halt. He knew his confession in the classroom would come to bite him in the butt eventually. With a heavy sigh, he decided that he should let his heart do the talking and he would just brace himself for the inevitable rejection that came afterwards.  
    “If you mean by Ladybug, the super heroine of Paris that everybody loves, then no. I do not love Ladybug.”  
                It was hard to get past the shocked gasp that came from both Nino and Alya but it was impossible to ignore the unreadable look that Marinette had on her face.  
    “But you-” Marinette attempted.  
    “Do you remember our first Akuma Marinette? Stone Heart?” Adrien asked cutting her off. Marinette only nod.  
    “When we had to fight Stone Heart the second time in front of the Eiffel Tower, Do you remember when Hawk Moth tried to turn the tables on us but you de-evilized the giant swarm of butterflies that formed his head?” Once met with another nod from Marinette, Adrien took his final stance and confessed his feelings once more.  
    “After you did that, that was the moment that I fell in love. I told myself after you released the thousands of butterflies into the sky ‘ _whoever she is beneath that mask, I love that girl._ ’ And I still mean it to this day. I‘m not in love with the super heroine that saves Paris on a daily bases and everybody is in love with. I’m in love with the girl that makes up the kind, compassionate, brave, creative, and selfless super heroine that I fight alongside with. I’m in love with the girl under the Ladybug mask who, in her civilian life, is so creative that she wants to be a fashion designer, who is brave enough to stand up against Chloé, who is so selfless and caring that she took on the role of being a superhero to keep the ones she loved safe from danger by putting herself in front of said danger. That’s the Ladybug that I’m in love with.”  
                Adrien let the words of his declaration of love settle for several seconds before he began to build his bunker to shield his heart’s crack from getting wider.  
    “And I understand if you don’t feel the same way that I do.” Adrien said as he already felt his bunker crumbling. “You’ve always rejected me as Cat Noir and always kept your distance with me as Adrien. I just want you to know that no matter how you feel about me, I will always take the hit for you My Lady and I will always be there for you. I hope we can at least still be partners after all of this.” And with that, Adrien had handed Marinette his heart. Adrien was expecting Marinette’s voice to let him down gently but his ears were met with Alya’s voice talking to Plagg.  
    “He can’t seriously be this dense can he?” Alya asked in disbelief.  
    “You have no idea…” Plagg replied with a paw on his forehead. “He’s denser than lead. Do you think we should help him out?” Alya and Nino both gave Plagg a nod.  
    “Adrien, why do you think Marinette has all of these pictures of you in her room?” Alya forged on with Plagg’s idea to assist the hopeless romantic.  
    “She’s a fashion designer! She was using my father’s designs as inspiration.”  
    “Adrien bro, what about her stuttering, blushing or mad dashes away from you when you enter a room?” Nino forged along with Alya.  
    “I assumed that I intimidated her…” Adrien said sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck. “I thought she was scared of me or something so she would take any opportunity to hide away from me.”  
    “What about that valentine card that you thought was from Ladybug? THAT WAS FROM MARINETTE! Can you explain why she sent that to you if she’s so afraid of you?!?” Plagg added aggressively ready to explode. When Adrien was stood in front of the three with a stumped face of confusion, the three collectively face palmed together before revealing what Marinette was too afraid to say herself.  
    “ **SHE HAS A MASSIVE CRUSH ON YOU!!!!** ” Plagg, Alya and Nino shouted in unison.  
    “Wh…..WAIT WHAT?!?!” Flabbergasted, Adrien considered the possibility that a crush was the reason to Marinette’s weird behavior. He couldn’t buy it. “Guys I think you’re wrong about that. There’s no way that Marinette has a crush on m- MUUPPHH???!!!” Adrien’s brain stopped comprehending anything.  
                Adrien wasn’t sure what had happen when his mouth was suddenly muffled over with something soft, warm, and sweet. But he did feel something new taking hold of his heart and he was petrified with fear. He feared what this entity was doing with his heart and why it was surrounding his bunker that held his heart. But with each passing moment, he began to feel something different.  
                The first thing that he felt was trust. The new entity was surrounded his bunker but did nothing more. It stayed patiently outside the bunker neither prying nor pushing its way inside. Instead, it was waiting patiently for his heart to open up on its own. Feeling the lack of hostility that the entity had, Adrien’s heart opened up.  
                The second thing that he felt was warmth. The warmth that reminded him of the hugs and embraces that his mother used to give him before she disappeared. Instead of coming inside the bunker, the entity pulled his broken heart out from the bunker and held it closely to itself. The distance between the two hearts closed as Adrien felt the entity heal him, comforting him.  
                The final thing that he felt was a connection. His heart wanted to feel the warmth that it felt when the entity held his heart close as soon as it released its healing hold. But his heart never felt a separation from the entity. As if his heart and the entity had become one, his heart only felt safety, security, and most of all, wholeness.  
                During the entire healing process, his bunker had collapsed and his heart found that it was replaced by a red and black spot bubble. It was then when Adrien had realized that the entity was Marinette and not only had she healed his broken heart, but she had showed that she had feelings for him and would always be there to protect him.  
                Now regaining consciousness, he realized that he was still standing in the middle of Marinette’s room. And at the same time, he felt the girl pull away from him as he stood there in a daze. “ _She just kissed you!!!_ ” his brain told him finally coming back online. Everybody was right. She did have feeling back for him and she had completed him. And she was there to make sure nothing would ever happen to him again.  
                Just as the moment ended, the two realized that there was a series of camera clicks from a few feet away from them. Turning their heads, they were met with Alya’s phone and the journalist tapping away at the capture button on the phone’s screen.  
    “ ** _ALYA!!!_** ” Marinette gasped in a small panic.  
    “Don’t worry girl! I won’t be putting these on the Ladyblog or anything like that. But I will be showing these to Louis, Emma, and Hugo.” Alya said with a cheeky grin.  
    “Uuummm who’re Louis, Emma, and Hugo?” Adrien asked suspiciously.  
    “Why don’t you ask Marinette?” Alya choked out as she tried to contain her laughter from seeing how red her best friend’s face had become.  
                Adrien looked down at Marinette as she buried her face into his chest. He couldn’t tell how red her face had become when she told him, but the dark crimson shade of red that her ears took told him everything.  
    “They’re the names of the babies that I want to have with you…along with a dog and a hamster to go along with our family...” Marinette squeaked loudly before further burying her face into Adrien’s chest. Adrien’s dumbfounded face turned into the same shade of red as Ladybug’s super suit as he let out a loving laugh and pulled Marinette in for a hug.  
    “ **Now** do you believe us when we say she’s head over heal for you?” Nino stood laughing next to Alya, who was still taking pictures, with a smug smile and crossed arms. “And I can’t believe that you two of all people fell into a love square! Marinette is head over heels for Adrien who is Cat Noir who is head over heels for Ladybug who is Marinette. You two were made for each other!”  
    “They honestly are.” Tikki said flying next to Nino. “Many past duos who have been chosen to be the wielders of the ladybug and black cat Miraculous have been romantically together. Plagg and I are two halves of a whole and so are those two.”  
    “Well I’m just glad that they finally got together!” Plagg said joining the conversation. “Now I don’t have to hear him swooning about the girl under the Ladybug mask.”  
    “Well now that the cat’s out of the bag, you won’t have to hear it from me. You can hear our love stories from Tikki.” Adrien said with a mischievous grin.  
    “She won’t be telling any stories about us if you keep those puns Cat.” Marinette said lifting her face from his chest. “You are not allowed to make any puns as Adrien or I will lose it.”  
    “Oh come on Princess!” Adrien pleaded using Cat’s wittiness. “You know my puns are paw-sitively claw-some! And you know I’m not kitten around with how pun-ny I am.”  
                Adrien knew Marinette was going to hang him off of the Eiffel Tower from the cold and dead eye stare she gave him. With a few snickers from everyone in the room, Marinette began to giggle and she rolled her eyes at Adrien which he did half expect.  
    “This is going to take some time to get used to…” Marinette said shyly. “But I’ll always be there for you silly alley cat.”  
    “As will I My Lady.” Adrien said pulling Marinette into another kiss.  
                Although he wanted to kiss Marinette to the end of time, they were interrupted by another series of camera clicks by the trap door that lead to the bedroom. Snapping his eyes open, he was met with Marinette’s parents and a camera in Sabine’s hands aimed at the couple.  
    “Wait Mr. and Mrs. Dupain Cheng!” Adrien cried as he pulled out of the kiss. “It’s not what it looks like!”  
    “Adrien” Marinette said in a half serious half dreamy tone. “They know. About everything. So everything is ok. They love you like a son and you are welcome to be part of this family.”  
    “What?” Adrien said shocked. “Bu-But I couldn’t!”  
    “What she’s saying is true dear.” Sabine said. “You will always be welcomed in this house hold and to this family. You’ve always been there for her and so shall we. Thank you for protecting our daughter.”  
                Adrien could feel the warmth of his heart growing as he felt the acceptance of Marinette’s family. And the feeling only grew as both Sabine and Tom climbed into the room and had a group hug with Marinette and Adrien. Everything had turned out right. Every fear and every loose ends had been tied down. All except one and Adrien wanted to tie it down and keep it down forever. Breaking from the family hug, he turned to Marinette.  
    “So Marinette there’s something I want to ask you.” Adrien said with a blush creeping onto his cheeks. “Would you be my girlfriend?”  
                The answer was instantaneous.  
    “I thought you would never ask kitty.” Marinette replied with a Ladybug grin. “Yes I would love to be your girlfriend.”  
                With that, the room erupted in cheers to celebrate the couple. The duo stood in the middle of the now cramped room smiling at each other not knowing what to do from there. Tom then told everybody to stay for dinner and everybody began to file downstairs leaving Marinette and Adrien alone for a few moments.  
    “Best day ever.” Adrien sighed leaning his forehead against Marinette’s.  
    “It really is.” Marinette said quietly. “By the way, Chloé’s wrong. You aren’t just a side kick. You’re my other half and you are just as important as Ladybug.”  
                Without a hesitation, Adrien accepted this fact and took Marinette’s hand. Hand in hand, the two made their way downstairs to join family and friends and their kwami for dinner. Knowing now that everything has now been sorted out, the two closed this chapter in their life and began a new one full of happiness that has yet to be seen.

The End


End file.
